Leclerc: I didn't expect this result

Leclerc, however, will start the race on Sunday from second place as Mercedes' George Russell was slapped with a one-place grid penalty after Mercedes sent him out into the pitlane before the race director announced the time of the restart of Q2 after a Red flag caused by the crash of Haas' Esteban Ocon.

It was a qualifying of mixed fortunes for Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton set the ninth fastest time, the seven-time Formula 1 champion apparently unable to extract the same performance from the upgraded SF-25 like his teammate did.

Leclerc reflected on his qualifying in Ferrari's media brief; he said: "I didn't expect this result in qualifying, but I think we have worked very well in the last few weeks and this is the reward.

"We explored quite a few set-ups and I think I've found a direction that enables me to better extract the potential from the car. In Q3 the lap on scrubbed tyres wasn't great, but the feeling in the car was good and I knew I had the potential to do a much better lap although I didn’t expect it to be good enough for P3.

"It's good to see that we are making progress and I want to thank the team for the great job done on track and in Maranello to bring the upgrade to this race.

"Everything worked as expected and now we have to focus on the race. It won't be easy to keep this position but we will try and get a good result, as it would be a boost for the whole team," Leclerc concluded.

Hamilton struggled with his Ferrari all weekend so far, and ninth was the best he could muster, and speaking in Ferrari's qualifying report, he lamented: "It wasn’t the day I was hoping for.

"The changes made overnight set us back in FP3, and while we applied further setup adjustments ahead of qualifying it just didn’t come together and I also didn’t find the performance window I needed. Credit to Charles, who did a great job out there.

"On a positive note, the race pace looked promising yesterday," the Briton added, "and with a long race ahead, there’s still an opportunity to make progress.

"We’ll analyse the learnings overnight and come back stronger. A big thank you to the team for their continued efforts — we’ll keep pushing," Hamilton concluded.

As for Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur, he summed up: "Today’s three qualifying sessions were quite chaotic for everyone because these cars are very sensitive to the wind and to track temperature.

"On our side, I think we have made good progress and Charles was able to get everything out of the car to finish a strong P3. Lewis struggled on his last lap in Q3, after having been on the pace in the first two parts.

"For the race tomorrow, with Charles’ grid position, we have to be ambitious but I think Lewis also has the potential to come back and score good points," the Frenchman concluded.